Delmarva chicken industry sees positive end to 2010

The Delmarva Peninsula, an area on the East Coast of the U.S. that encompasses parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, has a poultry industry that produces 600 million chickens per year and saw investments and the potential for long-term growth in several of the area's poultry companies at the end of 2010:

• Amick Chicken Farms LLC became the first new company to raise and process chickens on Delmarva since 1988.
• Allen Family Foods Inc. completed phase one of an expansion that increased its weekly bird processing by 20%, with another increase expected in spring of 2011.
• Mountaire Farms has made plans to invest $34.5 million into a rendering and resource-recovery plant in Millsboro, Del.
• Perdue Farms Inc.'s headquarters in Salisbury, Md., is undergoing a $12.8 million renovation.
• Tyson Foods Inc. is looking to expand its Temperanceville, Va., processing plant. 

Delmarva's poultry industry, which employs roughly 100,000 workers, had no major layoffs or plant closings in 2010.